If thou couldst die to-night,

Ere at thy door some grevious sin is laid,
'Twere better thus that nature's debt be paid,
Though like a singer of an earlier lay

I plead for thee, O, dumb, unconscious clay.
No worn-out dogmas of a darkened age
Need then attend the spirit's parting sigh;
But truth might write upon her glowing page,
"Sustained by faith, 'tis glorious to die."
And thus the cynic, dead to mortal view,
Would wake to grander life far out beyond the
blue.

If thou couldst die to-night,

And no heart ache because thine own was stilled,
How measureless the joy that would have thrilled!
But, ah! the morrow with its glad surprise,
The wine cup's cheer, the light in Beauty's eyes-
Their charm will lure thee from the shadowland
Back to the garish splendor of the shore,

And though wilt cringe beneath the scourging hand,

Poor galley-slave at Pleasure's gilded oar;
But one day, weary of her siren's wiles,

The soul will wing its way where lift the restful isles.
ROBERT REXDALE.

-The Boston Traveler, Feb. 21, 1890.

AT THIRTY-FOUR.

HERE I am at thirty-four,
Just as hopeful and as poor
As I was at twenty-one,
When life fairly had begun.
Looking back along the way,
This is what I note to-day:

Life has not been all success,
Very often something less;
Seldom have I lacked for health.
Little have I cared for wealth.

Thought more of the glen and glade Than of busy marts of trade; Thought more of the wood and brook Than of bank or pocket-book.

Have I wiser been than they
Who have hoarded every day?
Wiser I have not been, 'tis true,
But, my friends, I say to you,
Happiness is ofttimes sold,
But is never bought with gold.
Wealth too often brings the curse,
Smaller heart with larger purse.

He is poor whose heart and mind
Bar out love of human kind.
He is rich whose days are spent
In the heaven of content.

PERHAPS.

THE truth of this I debate, and doubt

The time is coming when I shall know, The time when my current shall cease to flow. My candle of life go out.

Some myth blown over the Aryan sea,
Some tale recast from the Vedas hoar,
Is all that is left of the holy lore
My mother taught me at her knee!

Perhaps! And yet, perhaps, not so!

Perhaps, as my eyes the mists shall fill And to the land where the storms are still My tired feet shall turn to go,

In spite of learning on learning piled,

In spite of cosmogonies vague and vast, The beautiful arms of my mother's Christ Shall spread, perhaps, to her halting child! JOHN W. BELL.

-For The Magazine of Poetry.

NOTES.

PETERSON. Mr. Peterson contends that "ha Elohim" should not be translated the God, but the Gods: "In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth." "And the Gods said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "And the Lord God (Yahveh Elohim, the Lord of the Gods,) said: Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." The received translation mixes singular and plural in the most curious fashion.

IBID. "The Clover Leaf." The light markings on the leaf of the red clover often take the shape of a heart. The author wonders whether he is the first to put this fact into literature, and would like to hear if he is not.

IBID. "Lyon." Gen. Nathaniel Lyon was killed at the battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861. He had been educated at West Point, had served in the Mexican war, and was enthusiastically devoted to the cause of the Union. He was not married, and bequeathed $30,000, nearly all his property, to aid the government in the prosecution of the war. His character was essentially heroic.

IBID. "Helen; After Troy." Very contradictory are the ancient stories told of Helen, but they all agree as to her being taken back by Menelaus. Perhaps her banishment, or death, might have

endangered his title to the kingdom she brought him. Besides, as a daughter of Jupiter, she could not be held to a strict account for her behavior.

MACKAY. For that excellent poem by Mr. Mackay, entitled "Clear the Way," see THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY for January, 1890, vol. ii, pp. 116.

IBID. "Eolian Music" was written for this magazine.

IBID. "Cheer, Boys, Cheer!" has been set to music by Henry Russell.

IBID. "The Good Time Coming" has been set to music by Henry Russell. The late George Dawson, of Birmingham, Eng., the eloquent preacher and lecturer, adopted this poem as a hymn to be sung at the religious services of his church, substituting the word "yet" for "boys."

after the battle of Solferino, a detachment of the Italian force passed through a town near the field of the day's victory, and discovered that the enemy's colors, abandoned or forgotten in their panic, were still flying from the old church. The spire had been nearly demolished by the cannonade. In reply to the thoughtless challenge of the leader to "climb up and cut down the flag," after the soldiers had shown their general unwillingness to risk their lives on the tottering structure, a little peasant girl, Bettina Mazzi by name, undertook it successfully. She received a rich reward from the spectators, as well as the only thing she had asked for on attempting her feat, the long ostrich plumes which the leader wore in his military chapeau, and by which her rustic fancy had been greatly struck.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

WORKS CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS NUMBER OF "THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY." AUSTIN, ALFRED. The Season: A Satire. New and revised edition (being the third). London: John Camden Hotten, 1869. 16mo, pp. xxv and 80.

IBID. The Golden Age: A Satire. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871. 16mo, pp. xi and 126.

IBID. Interludes. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1872. 16mo, pp. viii and 108.

IBID. The Human Tragedy. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1876. 12mo, pp. 439.

IBID. Madonna's Child. Second edition. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1873. 8vo, pp. 80.

IBID. Rome or Death! Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1873. 8vo, pp. xi and 184.

IBID. The Tower of Babel. A Poetical Drama. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1874. 8vo, pp. 256.

IBID. Savonarola. A Tragedy. London: Macmillan and Co., 1881. 12mo, pp xxix and 306. IBID. Soliloquies in Song. London: Macmillan and Co., 1882. 12mo, pp. xii and 158.

IBID. At the Gate of the Convent and Other Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1885. 12mo, pp. xi and 142.

IBID. Prince Lucifer. Second edition. London: Macmillan and Co., 1887. pp. xxi and 193.

IBID. Love's Widowhood and Other Poems. London and New York: Macmillan and Co., 1889. 12mo, pp. vi and 142.

IBID. Look Seaward, Sentinel. London: W. H. Allen and Co., 8vo, pp. 15.

PETERSON, HENRY. Poems. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1863. 12mo, pp. 203.

IBID. Poems. Including "The Modern Job." Second series. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1883. 12mo, pp. 227.

SMITH, HARRY B. Miscellaneous poems.

LATHROP, ROSE HAWTHORNE. Along the Shore. Boston: Ticknor & Co., 1888. 16mo, pp. 104. ROLLSTON, ADELAIDE DAY. Miscellaneous poems. LIPPMANN, JULIE M. Miscellaneous poems. SAVAGE, MINOT J. Poems. Boston: George H. Ellis, 1882. 16mo, pp. 247.

IBID. Miscellaneous poems.

MACKAY, CHARLES. Selected Poems and Songs. London: Whittaker and Co., 1888. 16mo, pp. XXX and 272.

IBID. "Voices from the Crowd," "Legends from the Isles," "Egeria," etc.. and miscellaneous poems. KINGSLEY, CHARLES. Poems. Complete collected edition. London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 8vo.

BELL, H.T. MACKENZIE. The Keeping of the Vow and Other Verses. London: Elliot Stock, 1879. 12mo.

IBID. Verses of Varied Life. London: Elliot Stock, 1882. 12mo.

IBID. Old Year Leaves. London: Elliott Stock, 1883. 12mo. IBID. Old Year Leaves. Being Old Verses Revised. New edition. London: J. Fisher Unwin, 1885. 8vo, pp. xxiv and 308.

PHELPS, CHARLES HENRY. Miscellaneous poems. JONES, I. EDGAR. Miscellaneous poems. BRISTOL, AUGUSTA COOPER. Poems. Boston: Adams & Co., 1868. 12mo, pp. 190.

IBID. Miscellaneous poems.

NASON, EMMA HUNTINGTON. White Sails. Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1888. 8vo, pp. 162. IBID. Miscellaneous poems.

MAXWELL, HU. Idyls of the Golden Shore. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Son, 1889. pp. viii and 233.

COMMELIN, ANNA OLCOTT. Poems. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1888. 16mo, pp. 60. SMITH, MARY BARRY. Miscellaneous poems. CRANDALL, CHARLES H. Miscellaneous poems. THOMPSON, CHARLES L. Miscellaneous poems. RENFREW CARRIE. Miscellaneous poems. FAULKNER, HARRY C. Miscellaneous poems. BROWNING, ROBERT. Poems. Complete collected edition. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. ALDRICH, ANNA REEVE. The Rose of Flame and Other Poems of Love. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1889. 16mo, pp. iv and 92. SPAULDING, HARRIET MABEL. Miscellaneous

poems.

BUMSTEAD, EUDORA. Miscellaneous poems. LOVEJOY, GEORGE NEwell. Miscellaneous poems. LOCKHART, ARTHUR J. The Masque of Minstrels and Other Poems, Chiefly in Verse. By Two Brothers. Bangor: Benjamin A. Burr, Printer, 1887. 12mo, pp. iv and 361.

CRAWFORD, MRS. JOHN. Miscellaneous poems. KAYE, JOHN BRAYSHAW. Songs of Lake Geneva and Other Poems. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1882. 12mo, pp. v and 200.

COOLIDGE, SUSAN, Verses. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1880. 16mo, pp. 181.

IBID. A Few More Verses. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1889, 16mo, pp. 257.